The Art of Communication
by lighthouse11
Summary: Not for the first time, and unlikely to be the last, Carol has spoken without thinking. Only this time it was to Abigail Brand, in front of the Alpha Flight crew, and it touched a nerve with Brand. Now Carol has to patch things up, only 'feelings talks' aren't really her cup of tea - so she calls some friends for a few pointers. One-shot.


A/N: One shot. Carol Danvers fluff set somewhere after the first arc of "Mighty Captain Marvel" (2016) and IVX#6. I have made some assumptions regarding certain characters.

I am also uploading this on AO3.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, etc. These belong to Marvel.

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I looked up from my desk for a second and almost jumped out of my skin.

"Oh, shit Brand. You know you're allowed to knock." Abigail Brand was standing in front of the door, her arms crossed, looking about as unimpressed as I've ever seen her. I scrambled to pull my headphones off. Chewie was unfazed. She'd heard Brand enter. Dumb cat hadn't altered me though.

"You wouldn't have heard me."

"No, yeah, ok, but…"

"Stand up," she said, crossing my office.

"What?"

"Stand up. I don't like yelling at people when they're sitting down."

"Umm…" Oh shit. I was trouble with Brand. And what's worse, I think I know why. I stood up anyway. "Ok, so…"

"Don't you dare to presume to know anything about me!" Brand yelled, leaning over my desk. "Don't you _dare_. You never read my file. You can't bluff your way out of it, either. How the hell did you not know I'm a mutant, Danvers? How the hell did you not know I've got powers?"

"I - umm…" I haven't read her file. Rookie mistake number one: not reading up on your people. Especially if they have naturally green hair and are way more qualified for this than you but you're still their boss. You're probably missing something. I was definitely missing something, and Brand was definitely about to explain it.

"Don't worry, I'll fill you in."

I'd never seen her so pissed.

"My dad was a green-furred alien, and my mum an earth mutant. I have naturally green hair, glowy hands, can reconfigure my tongue to speak alien languages, and no social skills. I had family on Genosha. The only reason I wasn't there was because I was held up at SWORD for an extra ten minutes. By time I went to leave, the whole fucking planet was in lock-down while genocide was carried out and _no one_ came to help."

Ooooh no. I should have known this. I really should have known this. I didn't know where to look. I didn't know if Brand was looking at me because of her stupid green glasses. I don't think I was supposed to say anything. Was I? I'm so screwed.

"Under my command, SWORD protected the earth from things that are so highly classified, you don't even know that the archives exist. And I protected the universe from all the shit that goes down on earth. I am good at my job. I am very good. Hell, I'm the best there is at what I do. And maybe I don't do 'friends' very well. Or social shit. Or feelings. But don't you dare assume that I don't care. Sure, I don't care about what people think about me, but I'm not a bloody automaton, Danvers. I care about people. The X-Men. You. Do your bloody homework. If you can't do that part of the job, just punch shit and look pretty and stay out of my way."

Oh crap. I didn't have a response. Brand marched out of my office. You can't slam the doors because they're automated, but I'm sure she would have if she could have. I sat back down. She's right. I said things I shouldn't have, because I didn't know what I was saying. Leading is hard, and I mucked up rule number one.

Chewie came and sat on my lap. I needed a hug.

I called Jess via FaceTime. Oddly, space wifi is usually better than the connection I can get in New York.

"I've got a problem," I said, skipping formalities. No need for them with Jess. She gets it.

"Like an 'Avengers Assemble' problem, or…"

"I screwed up with Brand."

"Oh. A high school problem."

"It's not funny. She's way more qualified for this than me. She knows everything and everyone and can utilise everyone's strengths and isn't afraid to be the bad guy or take the heat and I screwed up."

"How?" Jess folded her legs and leant back in her chair.

I leant back too. "Spoke before thinking."

"Aww, Carol. Not again."

"I know. We kinda got into an argument. In front of others. Totally unprofessional, I know. I said she didn't care about anyone. She - she cares. She just has a different way of showing it."

"Well she scares the crap out of me, so props to you for arguing with her?"

I sighed. I think my shoulder's slumped. Jess was trying. I just wished she was actually there.

"What?" Jess asked.

"She had family on Genosha."

"Oh shit."

"And as far as I can tell, her closest allies in the X-Men were Beast, Emma Frost, Cyclops and Kitty Pryde."

"So, AWOL, MIA, dead, and leader."

"Yeah."

"Shit," Jess said. I wished I could just go down to earth and have a drink with her and chill out for a while. That's one problem with Alpha Flight: there's no time just to chill.

"I mean, she's as weird as, but I still…" I didn't know where I was going.

"Have you apologised?"

"No. She came in here and yelled at me and told me to back off, then left before I could even figure out if I was supposed to say something."

"Well, apologising might be a start, Carol."

"Yeah, I know, but, well… She's not really a feelings talk kinda person."

"Neither are you. But you clearly wanna fix this, or you wouldn't be calling me about it."

I sighed again. Jess was right.

"Now what?" Jess asked. Damn, she knows me too well.

"I, umm…"

"Carol, sometimes you're the worst, you know?" She's teasing, but it's true. "Call the X-Men. Heck, you're practically an honorary member. And since Brand is too, someone there will probably know what to do. Kitty or Storm or Psylocke or someone. They know her better than I do. They might have some pointers."

"But I didn't read her file, Jess. I didn't even know she was a mutant, with mutant powers and a dead family. And I don't know why she didn't accept top job. She was offered it before I was, and turned it down."

"Ask her, Carol. Using words. Have the damn feelings talk. You do it with me all the time. It's not that hard."

"Yeah, but you're nice."

Jess laughed.

"Well, I have done it with her once," I said.

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. I needed to talk. She listened. I think she must have Googled what to do. I'd say maybe seen it on TV, but she's not even up to date with Game Of Thrones, so, you know, pop culture references are a bit lost on her."

"If she Googled it, it means she cares enough about you to try. Now it's on you to do the same. You can do the same."

"Google it?"

"I don't think Google is going to have the answers for this. Call the X-Men. Find out what you need to know, then go talk to her. Or let her talk, if that's what she needs. You guys are earth's first line of defence. Kinda helps the whole planet if you're getting along, and, you know, communicating and shit."

"Why are you always right?"

"Because I'm perfect and you love me for it."

I rolled my eyes, but Jess had made me smile. "Yeah, your right."

"Good. Call me later. I've gotta baby to bath."

"Ok. Talk later."

"See ya, Carol. Text me later."

"Ok. Bye."

I procrastinated for a bit, petting Chewie, checking Twitter. I don't know why. Kitty Pryde is pretty much the nicest person on earth. She's arguably the nicest person in the galaxy. She's certainly one of the best. So what the heck was I waiting for? I called. Kitty answered. Of course she answered.

"Colonel Danvers! How can the Xavier Institute's best and brightest assist the renowned Alpha Flight?"

"Hey, Kitty."

"No Phoenixes on the horizon? Or hordes of Shi'Ar armies coming to slaughter the various members of Grey-Summers family? Or - well, any of the many other space-based threats to the X-Men? Or, to the earth? Or… oy vey. Quill's not there is he?"

She made me smile. "None of that. And why does everyone assume I'm calling because of some crisis?"

"Because it usually is a crisis," Kitty said. "Last time you called, it was to fight Tony Stark. Haven't pissed off any other senior Avengers? Not sure the X-Men are too keen on another big fight at the moment. We've kinda had all we can take lately."

I smirked. "Worse than one of the Avengers."

Kitty pulled a face. "You pissed off Gamora?"

"You're in the right colour scheme."

"Colour - oh man. You pissed off Brand."

I ran my hand through my hair. "I mean - I didn't really mean to, but I spoke without thinking and…"

"Aww, Carol," Kitty said, leaning back in her chair.

"That's what Jess said. What do I do?" I asked.

Kitty thought for a moment. "What did you say?"

"Accused her of not caring." I couldn't meet Kitty's eyes. "I - I also may have neglected to read her employee file, and didn't know she was a mutant and - stuff." I couldn't tell her about not knowing about Genosha. The X-Men are kinda touchy about that. I know Kitty had family there. Most of them did.

"Oy vey…"

"Yeah. Not good, right?"

"Yeah, a bit."

"Yeah."

We were silent for a moment, Kitty thinking, me petting Chewie. Cats are the best.

"Brand's not a people-person," Kitty said after what felt like ages but the little call timer at the bottom of the screen forced me to accept that it had been less than a minute. "But she's _your_ person, Carol. All the shit in the world can go down, and Brand will still be right behind you. Trust me. I mean, all that shit with Stark, and she's still there. She could jump teams whenever she wants. Join SHIELD, us, single handedly run the world, whatever. But she stayed with Alpha Flight. She stayed with you."

"She should be in charge," I said, looking at Chewie. "She was offered the job first."

"I know," Kitty said, "But Alpha Flight is a lot more public than SWORD was. Brand's a stage manager; you're a leading lady. Nothing wrong with being the leading lady, either, but without your stage manager, your standing naked in the dark without an orchestra or audience. That's what Brand makes happen. She's not worried about the applause. You just gotta sing, Carol. Let her do what she's best at, and you do what you're best at."

"Punching shit," I mumbled, rubbing Chewie's ears.

"Come on, Carol, there's more to you than that. Earth's mightiest hero, remember? You weren't given the position because you're physically strong. And have magic blast fingers. And can fly. Heaps of folk can do that."

"Name one."

"Monet, Rachel, Jean, Julian…"

"Ok, ok!"

"And the girls all have telepathy too."

"Yeah, ok, ok! So I'm still not an Omega mutant, but I…" I trailed off. I didn't where I was going.

"Am still filled with self-doubt?" Kitty suggested. "Still screw things up? People want to follow you, Carol, even though you've messed up in the past."

Damn Kitty's a good teacher-mentor. "I prefer space adventures," I grumbled, "In space. Away from bureaucracy and red-tape and stuff."

"I know. Look, my first adventure with Brand was to the Breakworld. Talk to her about that. We hardly knew her then. She sure put Emma in her place." Kitty smiled at the memory, but also looked kind of sad. The X-Men really have lost too much lately. Too many people they should have stopped and saved. I know how that feels. I nearly changed the subject to that, but it's too easy to get distracted. Got to stay on topic.

"You - you think she'll want to talk about it?"

"Don't know. But you could try. She's more likely to tell rather than talk, if that makes sense. So just listen."

"I approach Brand for a feelings talk."

"Sounds about right."

I think knew it all along. But I still needed to hear it from my friends, both of whom gave me the same answer. "Guess I better go put on my big girl pants and face her, then."

"She's not that scary. And you still out power her."

"She's damn scary," I said, "And she could out-leadership me in a snap."

"Like I said, she wants you in top job. It let's her do her thing."

"Thanks, Kitty." There should be more teachers like Kitty Pryde. "I guess you probably gotta go."

"Yeah. Unless you want to help supervise dinner? We can swap. I'll keep an eye out for intergalactic dangers, you make sure the students don't destroy the cafeteria? I mean, you'd think they'd learn. They _live_ here…"

I laughed. "I'm good." Kitty has a bunch of super-powered, hormone-charged teenagers to deal with; she doesn't need to be talking to me all night about my issues which are effectively the same as what she's dealing with at the school.

There was a bang in the background. "Oh, for…" Kitty checked her watch. "If that was Quire, I'm gunna throw him in the danger room and turn off the safeties. Well Carol, offer always stands. Come get some earth pizza with us some time. And bring Brand. Then Rachel and I will sneak out and do shots and you guys can babysit. The kids are varying levels of terrified of Brand and in awe of you. It'll be easy."

I was right. Kitty Pryde's the best. "I'll let you know," I smiled. "See ya, Kitty."

"See ya, Carol. And it's like I tell the kids: do your damn homework. You might learn something."

Kitty disappeared from the screen, and I knew what I had to do, once I'd done my homework.

"Brand?" I've never been in her office before. I run this space station. What was I so afraid of? I wasn't surprised to see that her office was bigger than mine, or at least looked that way. And full of filing cabinets and files on the benches and books and maps and screens. Like, a dozen screens all showing different space and earth and weather and other stuff. I have a MacBook.

Brand looked at me. I stood awkwardly, like a kid in the principal's office.

"Umm. Sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have…"

"Don't get all soppy on me, Danvers. Next thing I know, you're going to be wanting a feelings talk."

"Umm, yeah. That's kinda why I came."

"Now what's happened?"

"No. You talk. I - umm, I called Kitty."

"Pryde? Why?"

"She said to ask you about Breakworld."

"Why? What's happened there now? Why are the X-Men getting intel we're not?"

"No, no," I said, forgetting how damned paranoid Brand is, "About the time you went there. With her. And Emma Frost, and…" I guess there were others that Kitty didn't mention. Bit weird if it was just the three of them.

"Peter was a god, I got shot, Scott died and Kitty turned into a bullet."

Well that wasn't in her file. Some of that super-classified SWORD stuff, I guess. "Care to elaborate?"

"Get a box of Malteasers and a bottle of that pink non-alcoholic bubbly stuff and season five of 'Game of Thrones', and the story's yours."

We're not allowed alcohol on board Alpha Flight. But Malteasers are easy to come by. Not so much DVD box-sets.

"iTunes credit, Danvers," Brand said, apparently reading my mind. Are all X-Men mind readers? I might need to double check her file. "It's not like I have anywhere to store the hard copies."

"Season five?"

"I'm still on season two of 'Sherlock', and three of 'Parks and Recreation'. I'm busy. The galaxy doesn't save itself."

"Aww Brand," I said. I wanted to hug her. Brand did not look like she wanted a hug. I kept my arms to myself. "I'll be right back."

That was one hell of an adventure they went on to the Breakworld.


End file.
